


The Mall

by StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese



Series: high school catradora [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Awkward Flirting, F/F, Human Catra (She-Ra), catra: kill me now lord, man its been forever sorry about that, part 3- or the one where catra fails at flirting, scorpia: :D
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27202219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese/pseuds/StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese
Summary: Catra and Scorpia go to the mall, only to run into a familiar face.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Series: high school catradora [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877224
Comments: 8
Kudos: 99





	The Mall

**Author's Note:**

> This fandom is still alive, right?

“Ugggghhhh.”

“Catra, staring at your computer and groaning isn’t going to solve anything.”

_“Ugggghhhh.”_

It had been a _very long day._

And now… essays.

God.

_Essays._

Who even decided that people should have to write them? Weaver, that was who, but she couldn’t even blame Weaver this time because it was a school requirement or something. Blah, blah, blah, Catra hadn’t been listening to the details.

Catra let her head flop down on her desk.

“Okay.” Scorpia said from somewhere above Catra’s head, “You need a break.”

Catra glanced up at her, head still pressed to the desk. “Anything to get me out of here.”

“Great!” said Scorpia. “Let’s go.”

“What? Where?”

Scorpia shrugged as she opened the door to Catra’s bedroom. “Let’s just drive somewhere.”

“Like where?”

“Dunno. The mall?”

The mall. It was brand-new, built with taxpayers dollars, had a shitty food court, no good stores, and to top it all off, it was a total freakin’ eyesore to anyone unlucky enough to catch a glimpse of it. 

But what was the alternative? More essays for Weaver? Nah.

“Yeah, sure, why not?” Catra said, and Scorpia let out a little squeal of joy.

“I can’t believe you’re willingly coming!”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t push your luck,” Catra grumbled as she followed Scorpia out the door.

* * *

Catra was sitting in Scorpia’s car, feet on the dash, while Scorpia chattered excitedly about Entrapta and her dog Emily and this really cute classmate she met named Perfuma… Catra wasn’t totally paying attention, but then Scorpia cleared her throat meaningfully, and Catra glanced over.

“So,” Scorpia said, nudging her shoulder, “have you texted her yet?”

Catra nearly choked on thin air. “I– what? Who? What are you talking about? No! Focus on driving!”

Scorpia laughed, but refocused on the road. “Seriously, though… Adora? Texting? Have you?”

“Uh. Not yet.”

“What? What do you mean, _not yet?_ What about the project?”

Catra shrugged. Their project had already been turned in, the Keynote slides done, and they had scored a B, which was good enough for Catra. “We emailed and stuff.”

“You _what?”_

Catra scoffed. “What, is there some kind of texting etiquette I’m supposed to follow?”

“She gave you her number! You had to text her right away!”

“I’m pretty sure she just gave me her number out of pity.”

 _“Ugggghhhh!”_ Scorpia said, but by then they were at the mall and she was too busy scrutinizing the parking lot for empty spaces to keep giving Catra a hard time.

* * *

Life was a mistake and Catra desperately craved the sweet release of death.

So. Many. Stores.

“I’m an introvert,” Catra said to Scorpia. “That means I draw my energy from being alone, preferably at home.” She made a wide gesture at the throngs of people milling around. “Please tell me you see the problem here.”

“Aw, come on!” Scorpia said. “You had to get out of your room at _some point_.”

“No, I don’t. This is the twenty-first century. I literally do not have to leave my house to get what I need to survive.”

“Except for Vitamin D,” Scorpia said. 

“I’m sure there’s pills for that.”

 _“I’m_ sure sunlight is cheaper.” Scorpia nodded at the food court. “Look. Let’s go eat something, and then we can go. Cool?”

“Ugggghhhh,” Catra said, but started walking towards the court. “Fine, let’s go.”

“You could sound a little more enthusiastic about it!” Scorpia called after her.

Catra wasn’t listening. She was too busy scanning the court. Chinese place, pizza place, teenagers hanging out, stoner at the register trying desperately to not look high, Adora, cheap plastic tables with stains of god-knew-what on them, Dippin’ Dots machine–

Wait.

Catra slowed and came to a stop. “Oh, no.”

“What?” Scorpia said, popping up beside her.

Silently, Catra pointed.

There, not twenty feet away, was Adora. Sitting there. Eating pizza. Looking as effortlessly gorgeous as ever.

_Goddamnit._

“We have to go,” Catra said. “Immediately.”

“Hey! Yeah!” Scorpia perked up. “We have to go _say hi!”_

“What? No!”

Too late. Scorpia was already striding over. “Adora! Hi!”

Adora gave a start.

Catra tried to dive behind Scorpia.

Scorpia ducked out of the way.

_Traitor._

Sheepishly, Catra stood and waved at Adora. “Hey, Adora.”

“Um… hi, Catra,” Adora said, offering a small smile.

Shit. Was she offended that Catra hadn’t texted her yet? It hadn’t been too long, only… Catra mentally ticked off the dates… two weeks. Okay, maybe Catra had been in the wrong here. Whoops.

“Sorry I haven’t texted,” she said, and meant it. “I swear, I’ve just been busy.”

“Yeah, no, I get it,” Adora said. “It’s fine.”

“Really?” Catra said, trying to ignore Scorpia’s way-too-big grin. “Because I feel like, you know, maybe I broke some kind of texting etiquette–”

“It’s fine!” Adora said again, and silence descended.

“Um,” Catra said, searching frantically for something to talk about. “Um. You... do the English paper yet?”

Adora blinked. “You mean the one for Weaver’s class? The…” she scrunched up her face, obviously trying to remember, and Catra determinedly told her stupid brain that it wasn’t cute at all, no sir, before Adora’s face lit up and Catra gave it up as a lost cause. “Oh! The– the persuasive one! That one?”

“Yeah, that’s the one,” Catra said, thinking only a little bit guiltily of the more-or-less blank Google Doc sitting in her computer at home.

Adora grimaced. “I… I haven’t started yet.”

“Heh, me neither,” Catra said. “Sucks.”

“Yeah.”

Silence.

Well, this was it. Any second now, the force of the awkwardness would convince God or Whoever was up there to pull the plug. _“That’s it. Game over. Let there be darkness…”_

But, sadly, that didn’t happen. 

“So… what have you been up to?” Adora asked.

“Uh. Just, like, classes and stuff,” Catra muttered. “You?”

“Same.”

Catra rubbed at her neck. God, this was awkward. She was going to kill Scorpia for this. “Um, how’s therapy?”

“Good,” Adora said. “Nothing to report.”

“Yeah, same.”

At that moment, Catra spotted a flash of pink across the food court, and felt a wave of relief. 

_“Ohheylookthere’sBow!”_ she said, and mentally patted herself on the back. Awkward crisis averted, now Adora would leave and Catra could yell at Scorpia for doing this to her.

Adora looked over, and perked up. “Hey, you’re right!”

Bow made some kind of aborted motion that could have been a wave, and could also have been some kind of signal for _oh my God Adora get away from the stabby girl before she stabs you too! Please! Nobody else is willing to overlook my terrible fashion sense!_

Which was fair enough, in Catra’s opinion, but Adora didn’t seem to get that message.

“Hi, Bow!” she said cheerfully, waving back. Bow grimaced a little and gave a tiny wave, then started beckoning.

Adora stood. “Guess that’s my cue,” she said.

“Yeah,” Catra said. “Um, hang on,” she dug the scrap of paper with Adora’s number out of her pocket. “Uh, here’s my number.”

Quickly, she thumbed in the digits and sent a text.

_Hey, Adora._

Adora’s phone dinged, and she offered Catra the biggest, dopiest smile Catra had ever seen on anyone. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Catra said, trying to sound nonchalant even though her heart was currently trying to beat its way out of her chest.

“I… I’ll see you later, I guess,” Adora said, offering a shy smile, and Catra did her best to ignore the fluttering in her chest. 

“For sure,” she said. “We’ll always have English class.” Scorpia made a choking noise beside her, and Catra wanted nothing more than to step on her foot, but offered a tight grin to Adora instead, who looked mostly bemused.

“Was that a _Casablanca_ reference?” Scorpia hissed in Catra’s ear. “Did you just make a _Casablanca_ reference? ‘We’ll always have Paris’? Hello?”

Catra tried to keep smiling.

“I’ll see you around,” Adora said, and hurried off to meet her friends. Catra stared after her.

Okay, _now_ she understood that stupid _I hate to see you go but I love to watch you leave_ joke.

“I can’t believe you tried to reference _Casablanca_ to her,” Scorpia said. 

“It wasn’t on purpose!” Catra whispered desperately.

 _“Sure_ it wasn’t. I don’t know if that was smooth or the most awkward thing I’ve seen in my life.”

_“Ugggghhhh.”_

“I thought we came here to stop that noise?”

_“Ugggghhhh.”_

Catra opened her eyes to see Adora across the food court, laughing with her friends. She was probably staring, and that was probably creepy, and she should probably cut it out, but–

“You know, she _is_ kinda cute,” Scorpia said.

“ _Scorpia!_ ”

“What? I’m serious! You should ask her to prom.”

“ _Scorpia!_ ”

“Come on, Wildcat, let’s go. You have an essay to write, and a Promposal to plan.”

_“Ugggghhhh!”_

**Author's Note:**

> My AO3-centric tumblr: @[talkingaboutcheese](https://talkingaboutcheese.tumblr.com/) or my fandom-centric tumblr @[stopiwanttotalkaboutcheese](https://stop-i-want-to-talk-about-cheese.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Tell me what you think? :)


End file.
